Saturday Work

  I had to work yesterday. It was Saturday. The regular bathroom janitor, Steve, didn't want to work so I covered for him. There were only a few production jobs running so it was a fairly easy day for me. I started the day by sweeping all the toilet paper and discarded newspapers out of the men's room floor. Then I checked all the toilet paper roll containers and filled the empty ones. Then I cleaned the 8 toilets with a brush and bowl cleaner. I then cleaned the 4 urinals with the same brush. I pushed the mop bucket to the boiler room and emptied the old dirty water out and refilled it with fresh soapy water. We have a big plastic tote in the boiler room where we dump dirty mop water. It's an environmental thing and the water has to be hauled off and disposed of. Then I mopped the men's room.
  After I had the men's room looking good I went to the women's rest room. Since the janitors are all men we have a gate at the entrance of the ladies room that we have to shut when we are inside. I stood at the door and hollered inside, "Hey...is anyone in here?" When I didn't hear anyone answer I went inside. I went to empty the trash can and happened to look over towards the stalls and saw a blue pair of tennis shoes sticking out of one. I hurried and got back outside. I don't know if it was someone asleep or if she had answered me and I didn't hear her. Anyway, I went back into the men's room to avoid an embarrassing confrontation when she came out.
  Later after I finished cleaning the ladies room, I went upstairs and cleaned the cafeteria. I like cleaning it because there is a television up there and I can listen to the news as I'm working. The channel was on Fox News which I quickly turned. If I leave it on that channel I just end up getting mad and wanting to pick an argument with the Republicans I set with at break.
  I checked all the vending machines for change in the coin returns. I usually find a dime or a nickel. Sometimes when I look under the machines I find quarters. I check them everyday.
  There are times when the graveyard shift will leave uneaten foods on the tables and I have eaten some of it if it looks clean. Better that than the trash. Sometimes I will see where someone has tried to purchase something from one of the machines and it hasn't gotten hung up inside. I have a secret way of getting the stuff out when no one is around and have gotten a lot of free food like that.
  I start cleaning the cafeteria by throwing away all the trash off of the tables. Then I wipe them down. I then sweep out from under all the tables. I mop the floor and empty the three big trash bags and I'm done. It takes me around an hour a day because it's a huge room. I guess it would seat around 100 people.
  At break I learned that a woman who had quit there about a year ago had killed herself. Mike said that she had parked her car beside the Interstate and walked into the woods and hung herself. I was appalled at the effort she had made and wondered what had went through her mind.
  I spent the rest of the day pushing the trash buggy through the building emptying trash cans. There is a big compactor outside and once you have a buggy full you have to dump it into a big hole and turn the compactor on. It crushes the trash with a big rusty roar.
  I had pretty much done all I was going to do by 1 o'clock and ducked out a back door and snuck to my truck. I leaned the passenger seat way back and set there enjoying the cool breeze that was blowing through the windows. I fell asleep and woke up scared. I hate to do that because I don't know who will walk up on me. I could get fired if a supervisor caught me asleep. I would get in trouble just for being in my truck during working hours.
  At home later we had my father in law and my mother and her boyfriend, Joe, over for dinner. Ryan's girlfriend, Mattea, came over after she got off from work. It was kind of a celebration for Ryan's birthday. It's not until Sunday but since we are taking him out to eat tomorrow, we had the grandparents over tonight.